8 in 10 hospitals put patients at risk, watchdog reveals

EIGHT in ten hospitals have been told to improve safety amid concerns from health watchdogs that they are putting patients at risk.

Cancer operations are being cancelled at the last minute, wards are infested with mould and patients are developing life- threatening blood clots, an alarming report found.

The Care Quality Commission has rated 81 per cent of hospital trusts as either inadequate or requiring improvement to meet basic safety standards.

It warned that social care services such as home help and residential care were at ‘tipping point’ and urgently needed more cash.

Common failings include surgeons operating on the wrong body part, nurses neglecting deteriorating patients and wards becoming dirty and unhygienic.

Last year’s report found that 74 per cent of trusts needed to improve safety, suggesting overall standards are now worse.

In the report published today, the CQC warned that hospitals were coming under rising pressure from a social care crisis.

This is leading to soaring numbers of elderly patients being admitted to A&E and then later ending up as bed-blockers on wards as they cannot be discharged.

Yesterday the Mail reported how the CQC is concerned about the pace of closure of care homes in England – with almost 1,500 shutting in the last six years.

The lack of available spaces is leading to rising numbers of elderly people being kept in hospital – with a sometimes devastating effect on their health. The 146-page report provides the most detailed assessment so far of the tens of thousands of hospitals, care homes and GP surgeries in England. But the watchdog is most concerned about hospitals where ‘too much’ care is inadequate.

The CQC has inspected 133 hospital trusts since 2014 – there are 155 in total – and each has been given a rating of outstanding down to inadequate.

In addition, each trust has been given a separate rating for safety, based on the measures taken to ensure patients are not at risk.

For safety, 10 per cent were rated ‘ inadequate’ and 71 per cent requires improvement. Just 20 per cent were ‘good’ and not one was outstanding. In terms of overall care, 6 per cent were graded inadequate, 52 per cent required improvement, 37 per cent were good and only 5 per cent outstanding.

Inspectors visiting Barts Health Trust in East London, one of the worst, found that urgent cancer operations were routinely being cancelled due to a lack of beds.

At Medway Foundation Trust in Gillingham, Kent, they found that patients were being put at risk from blood clots, infections and pressure sores as nurses failed to carry out checks. Inspectors also noted that mould was growing on wards and staff were not regularly cleaning toilets.

‘We have found too much acute care that we rated inadequate – particularly urgent and emer- gency services and medical services.’ the report states.

David Behan, CQC chief executive, warned there was ‘emerging evidence of deterioration in quality’. ‘We are becoming concerned about the fragility of the adult social care market, with evidence suggesting it might be approaching a tipping point. The result is that some people are not getting the help they need, which in turn creates problems in other parts of the health and care system.’

At Portsmouth Hospital Foundation trust, inspectors found up to 16 ambulances were queued up outside A&E because it was too full to take more patients.

And at North Middlesex Hospital, North London, a patient lay dead in the casualty department for four-and-a-half hours because staff were too busy to notice. Barbara Keeley MP, Labour’s spokesman for mental health and social care, said: ‘This report should set alarm bells ringing right across Government about the very real crisis facing health and care services in England.’

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, called the findings ‘sobering’.

She said: ‘The tide has turned and the pressures are becoming so great that the health and social care sector is struggling to meet demand whilst delivering excellent quality care.’

A Department of Health spokesman said most hospitals, care homes and GP surgeries were ‘good’ or ‘better’, adding: ‘The NHS is performing well at a time of increasing demand.’

‘Rising pressure from social care crisis’